With just 12 percent of the population, Bangkok produces 40
years ago because he hated school. He grew up
in Yasothon Province, 330 miles northeast of
Bangkok. After working as a gas station atten
dant and then at other jobs, he started driving
a tuk-tuk, one of the swarms of cheap, handy
little vehicles for hire that are basically motor
cycles that want to be rickshas. Now 56, Sakon,
a heavyset man with a round face, an under
slung jaw, and small, very round ears, was wait
ing for work at the stand outside the Grand
Palace. I climbed aboard, and we roared off.
"I don't notice the noise!" Sakon shouted
over the traffic. "I love to talk to passengers!"
Thirty-three years at exhaust-pipe level hasn't
dimmed his enthusiasm or his strength, aston
ishing when you consider that until recently he
drove from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. "Now I work from
6 to 8," he said, "because I'm getting old."
He pulled over near the flower market so we
could talk a little more easily. "I worked as
a cook for a while, then I became a monk," a
not-uncommon Buddhist interlude. "Later my
father got sick, and I went to my hometown. I
stayed with him until he died, and when I came
back, I saw the tuk-tuk drivers, and I thought,
'It looks like fun. I'll try it.' And it is fun. I love
it! At first, when I was younger, it was really
exciting-you can go anywhere. Now it's a little
less exciting, and it's more difficult because of
the traffic, and there are strict regulations."
Sakon and his wife, Suay, raised their three
sons and a daughter on the two-baht fares he
used to earn (now up to 30 baht, or 60 cents).
But 20 years ago Suay's father became blind,
and she went home to the farm to take care of
him. Sakon stayed on in the city, living with his
third son. He goes back to help her when he can.
"Actually, I really like being a tuk-tuk driver,"
he repeated. "I don't drink, I don't smoke"
with all the traffic, he wouldn't need to-and
he makes a good living, some 17,000 baht
($420) a month. "But my son tried it for a year,
and he complained about the traffic, the noise,
the pollution."
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